Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights: MP Materials and Apple
Chicago, IL – July 30, 2025– Today, Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights MP Materials MP and Apple AAPL.
MP Materials: A Rare Earth Commodity
Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of seventeen rare elements that are essential ingredients for a wide range of modern technologies due to their unique magnetic, luminescent, and electrochemical properties. Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock MP Materials is America's only vertically integrated rare earth producer. At its site in Mountain Pass, California, the company mainly mines and processes rare earth elements, particularly Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr), which are integral components in high-strength permanent magnets.
These rare earth magnets are irreplaceable because, without them, it's impossible to produce electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, robotics, advanced defense systems, and a wide range of consumer electronics such as smartphones. Beyond its California mine, MP Materials is expanding its magnet manufacturing capacity with new facilities in Texas.
MP Scores DoD Investment
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted to the world the fragility of the global supply chain. Although tensions between the US and China have cooled somewhat from their peak during the tariff standoff earlier this year, President Donald Trump has insisted that the US onshore and secure critical supply chain components, especially those needed for national security.
Because rare earth elements are essential for defense and critical commercial applications, the Department of Defense (DoD) awarded MP Materials a lucrative contract in early July, which includes a $400 million investment in preferred stock and a $150 million loan to help the firm expand its processing capabilities. In addition, DoD has pledged to purchase all of MP's neodymium-praseodymium oxide production from its new facility, ensuring a minimum price that will be paid.
Apple Commits $500 Million to MP Materials
Tech giant Apple is one of the largest purchasers of rare earth elements globally. On July 15 th, Apple announced that it would invest $500 million into MP Materials to purchase American-made rare earth magnets. Additionally, Apple will use its endless resources to help establish a 'cutting-edge rare earth recycling line in Mountain Pass, California, and develop novel magnet materials and innovative processing technologies to enhance magnet performance.'
MP Builds Rare, High-Tight Flag Chart Pattern
When it comes to price action, power and distance are often correlated. Following the DoD contract, MP shares bolted 50% in a single trading session as trading volumes soared to seven times the norm. A few weeks later, shares jumped another 20% as volume soared following the Apple news.
MP shares have now more than doubled over the past month, forming a classic high-tight flag pattern. While shares may seem extended to amateur investors, such patterns have historically led to robust gains, especially in companies with bullish catalysts like MP.
MP Call Flow
Deep-pocketed options traders have been piling into December $75 MP calls, suggesting high bullish conviction in the stock into year-end.
Bottom Line
MP Materials enjoys a monopoly on domestic US rare earth mining and production. In addition to its stranglehold on the rare earth market, MP stands to benefit from significant headwinds, including an investment from the US DoD, and a deal with Apple.
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Democrats still in the dumps over last year's elections have found cause for optimism in North Carolina, where former Gov. Roy Cooper jumped into the race for that state's newly open seat with a vow to address voters' persistent concerns about the challenges of making ends meet. Even Republicans quietly note that Cooper's candidacy makes their job of holding the seat more difficult and expensive. Cooper had raised $2.6 million for his campaign between his Monday launch and Tuesday, and more than $900,000 toward allied groups. Republicans, meanwhile, are hardly ceding the economic populist ground. In announcing his candidacy for the Senate on Thursday, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley credited President Donald Trump with fulfilling campaign promises to working Americans and painted Cooper as a puppet of the left. Still, Cooper's opening message that he hears the worries of working families has given Democrats in North Carolina and beyond a sense that they can reclaim their place as the party that champions the middle class. They think it's a message that could help them pick up a Senate seat, and possibly more, in next year's midterm elections, which in recent years have typically favored the party out of power. 'I'm Roy Cooper. And I know that today, for too many Americans, the middle class feels like a distant dream,' the former governor said in a video announcing his candidacy. 'Meanwhile, the biggest corporations and the richest Americans have grabbed unimaginable wealth at your expense. It's time for that to change.' Cooper's plainspoken appeal may represent just the latest effort by Democrats to find their way back to power, but it has some thinking they've finally found their footing after last year's resounding losses. 'I think it would do us all a lot of good to take a close look at his example,' said Larry Grisolano, a Chicago-based Democratic media strategist and former adviser to President Barack Obama. Whatley, a former North Carolina GOP chairman and close Trump ally, used his Thursday announcement that he was entering the race to hail the president as the true champion of the middle class. He said Trump had already fulfilled promises to end taxes on tips and overtime and said Cooper was out of step with North Carolinians. 'Six months in, it's pretty clear to see, America is back,' Whatley said. 'A healthy, robust economy, safe kids and communities and a strong America. These are the North Carolina values that I will champion if elected.' Still, the decision by Cooper, who held statewide office for 24 years and has never lost an election, makes North Carolina a potential bright spot in a midterm election cycle when Democrats must net four seats to retake the majority — and when most of the 2026 Senate contests are in states Trump won comfortably last November. State Rep. Cynthia Ball threw up a hand in excitement when asked Monday at the North Carolina Legislative Building about Cooper's announcement. 'Everyone I've spoken to was really hoping that he was going to run,' said the Raleigh Democrat. Democratic legislators hope having Cooper's name at the top of the ballot will encourage higher turnout and help them in downballot races. While Republicans have controlled both General Assembly chambers since 2011, Democrats managed last fall to end the GOP's veto-proof majority, if only by a single seat. Republican strategists familiar with the national Senate landscape have said privately that Cooper poses a formidable threat. The Senate Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, wasted no time in challenging Cooper's portrayal of a common-sense advocate for working people. 'Roy Cooper masquerades as a moderate,' the narrator in the 30-second spot says. 'But he's just another radical, D.C. liberal in disguise.' Cooper, a former state legislator who served four terms as attorney general before he became governor, has never held an office in Washington. Still, Whatley was quick to link Cooper to national progressive figures such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Whatley accused Cooper of failing to address illegal immigration and of supporting liberal gender ideology. He echoed the themes raised in the Senate Leadership Fund ad, which noted Cooper's vetoes in the Republican-led legislature of measures popular with conservatives, such as banning gender-affirming health care for minors and requiring county sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration officials. 'Roy Cooper may pretend to be different than the radical extremists,' Whatley said. 'But he is all-in on their agenda.' Cooper first won the governorship in 2016, while Trump was carrying the state in his first White House bid. Four years later, they both carried the state again. Cooper, who grew up in a small town 60 miles (96.6 kilometers) east of Raleigh, has long declined requests that he seek federal office. He 'understands rural North Carolina,' veteran North Carolina strategist Thomas Mills said. 'And while he's not going to win it, he knows how to talk to those folks.' As with most Democrats, Cooper's winning coalition includes the state's largest cities and suburbs. But he has long made enough inroads in other areas to win. 'He actually listens to what voters are trying to tell us, instead of us trying to explain to them how they should think and feel,' said state Sen. Michael Garrett, a Greensboro Democrat. In his video announcement, Cooper tried to turn the populist appeal Trump made to voters on checkbook issues against the party in power, casting himself as the Washington outsider. Senior Cooper strategist Morgan Jackson said the message represents a shift and will take work to drive home with voters. 'Part of the challenge Democrats had in 2024 is we were not addressing directly the issues people were concerned about today,' Jackson said. 'We have to acknowledge what people are going through right now and what they are feeling, that he hears you and understands what you feel.' Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge 21st Century, a group that conducts research for an initiative called the Working Class Project, said Cooper struck a tone that other Democrats should try to match. 'His focus on affordability and his outsider status really hits a lot of the notes these folks are interested in,' Dennis said. 'I do think it's a model, especially his focus on affordability.' 'We can attack Republicans all day long, but unless we have candidates who can really embody that message, we're not going to be able to take back power.' ___ Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
